an offering to the gym gods

In a tragic offering to the gym gods the squares and a bottle of wine I brought in for my part of the christmas eve lunch nibbles at work tipped over on the gym tile floor this morning and somehow shattered spectacularly...all over the floor and the desserts. Lovely. Glass everywhere in a gym setting.
Yeah. They loved me.
I cleaned it all up, but there is no wine or squares to be saved...only a few slightly wine filled Ferrero Rocher. Sad. I hope the gym gods appreciate their offering and grant me health and full christmas turkey and pudding recovery.
I think I'll just suck the wine out of the candies and call it a day :)

I'm not sure when I'll be in next, so I must wish you all a most Merry Christmas my frends :)

The moon is full

image

Yesterday was solstice.
The days will get longer now. More light. More warmth. The boldest and darkest things have come and will now be taken back and replaced with new brighter things.
After spending the evening with fine people snacking, laughing and reflecting I feel refreshed. It always seems like more of a new year to me than January 1. The time when I really can stop and ponder the past year and think about the one to come. Reflect. Wish. Scheme >:)

I find, upon reflection, that I need to take the time to be grateful for so many things:

I am really lucky to have the friends I do. Old and new. You all show me how to be a better person. You care without pause and push me to be better. Teach me when I am wrong. Love me for who I am. Make me laugh. Comfort me when I cry. It is freeing. Thank you.

I am closer with my family than I have ever been after the year that has passed by. Altho I still miss my Mum every day I can find the joy in memories. And the more I do, I remember that you must give love every day in little things. Take the time to appreciate those I care for. To let them know and not save up goodness for some grand future plan - to just share what is with a smile.

My husband and I are close...after so much we are companions of the soul and two geeky peas in an escape pod. He is still the one I see when I wake and smile and know each day that again, today will be a new day. And we will spend it together...and who knows what may come of it!

I am lucky to be healthy. At this moment, I am healthier than I have ever been. I can move and breathe and do everything I want to. And best of all, I have begun to feel comfortable in my own skin. I am slowly settling into whatever I am and will be. The process fascinates me.

I must be conscious that I am still learning. There is so much out there and endless opportunity to take it all in. From the crude and mundane to the new and scientific. So much to know and forget and relearn :)

There is so much to try and experience: I have come to love so many new things this year by being open-minded and curious. I like persimmons...cottage cheese...apple tea...espresso vodka...exercising at stupid o'clock.

Being so busy this past year has shown me just how important the things are to me that I hold dear. These are some of those things.

The moon is full.
As is my heart. :)

Cheers!

Feeling Festive

This Mexican version of Walking in a Winter Wonderland popped in my head last night after watching one of the weirdest (and arguably worst) Christmas films. A friend of ours has a penchant for B movies and invited us all over for a Christmas film. Usually it's a horror movie, so we showed up with munchies and eggnog and wow...were we surprised. It wasn't a horror...but yet it was...


(sorry - it was all I could find on this film on the web)

He found "Santa Claus" - a 1959 english dubbed Mexican Christmas film about a demon trying to stop Santa on Christmas eve. From this film, I've learned a few new facts about Christmas:
1. if you are bad Santa will shoot you in the butt with a canon
2. Santa lives in a castle out in space, made of crystal and candy
3.Good children who don't steal have nightmares about creepy dancing dolls
4. It's OK to pray to Santa for a present if you ask for two of them so you can give one to the baby Jesus.
5. Merlin the magician wears curly shoes and talks like Dr. Evil doing the macarena (katuk katuk katuk...). He lives in Santa's castle...just cuz...Utterly bizarre.

Good thing we had lots of rum...

Belated birthday presents are cool

I finally got together with my friends Heather and Lisa last night. Poor Larry and J endured us being nerdy giggly fools. There was beer and munchies in the Cave lounge, which is old with sculpted walls and odd lighting and honestly looks like Mos Eisley space port. I always expect the Cantina band to break out of the back room whenever we go in there. It's nice and mellow...
It's been so long since we've been able to meet that she still had my birthday present. Ridiculous I know. It was good to see them before Christmas. Hopefully I will again much sooner...We are scheming to go to ComicCon this summer...girls only. It should be a blast.

I am now the proud owner of lightsaber lip balm. Yes it lights up green. No you can't have it.

Hee hee.
So cool...

Furry friends

Poor Gavin has a cold. I worry a bit, as he's pretty old. He seems to still have lots of energy...he just sounds snuffly when he purrs and is sneezing. With any luck he won't pass it to the Geek, but we'll keep an eye on them. Both of them have panic attacks for cars and vets, so I won't put them through that unless they need some extra help. They are 15 so they don't bounce back like they used to, so we're keeping an eye on them...it's hard not to worry. We love them...things like this remind us that they are only with us for a while...a very fuzzy purry while. I left J curled up with 2 cats this morning when I left for the gym...I'm sure he would have been purring with them if possible. It was very cute to see all my guys curled up together asleep.

Friends of ours just lost their furfriend. I am sad with them -she was a sweet one. Some people have "pets". For me, and others like them their pets are family. It makes me want to go home and give the cats some sort of eternal youth elixir...I know I've had Geek about longer than I have had J about. And I'm so grateful for all that time...

That's a lot of head butts and skritches. :)

tuesday thoughts

Take my love, take my land
Take me where I cannot stand
I don't care, I'm still free
You can't take the sky from me

Take me out to the black
Tell them I ain't comin' back
Burn the land and boil the sea
You can't take the sky from me

There's no place I can't be
Since I found serenity
You can't take the sky from me...

Boo diggedy

I'm done my exam. I think it went OK...if I screwed up I don't know what I did wrong, so I figure it can't have gone that badly :)
I can hardly believe I can say it but

THIS SEMESTER IS OVER!!!!!

As my Dad would say - Hot damn and hallelujah!
I'm going out for supper with J and my Dad tonight to celebrate and visit and unwind. I will drink wine. I will smile. I will relax with my family and eat large amounts of chinese food....bliss.
Dad is here untill wednesday and it'll be so nice to just visit and not have a zillion things running around in the back of my head that need attention.

I'm so very very happy this semester is all over...
Cheers!

Geep

Well. Off to write my exam...here goes nothing.

Hard to Concentrate

I'm trying to study for my last exam. Its' tomorrow.
I'm wigging out...having the worst time concentrating. So much to know. So incredibly BORING.
It is the last thing before I am done this semester. Everything else has gone alarmingly well...
Soon I can then visit with my family and my Dad.
Make cookies.
Put up lights.

Just have to get thru this damn test first.

statistical analysis is NOT an easy study topic.
And I want to kick it's sorry ass back to Idaho.
Blech.

Well back to it I suppose...

Start again!

Well, I'm off to give my MSc progress meeting talk. You know, *that* one that I was supposed to give before.
I'm wearing my new dress pants. They're stretch corduroy. *wicked* - like pajama pants, but posh looking. It's like giving a speech in fancy pajamas :)

Here we go!

I can't decide if this is the coolest thing ever or mildly creepy

What do you think. *I'd* wear it...

Handle Me With Care

I still love this song. It's been in my head all morning...hope it makes you smile too. Lately I've had Roy Orbison on the brain...

I'm hanging in there. I may actually finish my final paper tonight...then comes the studying.

Have a great day K? :)

Taking a compliment

Mmm...I just finished my breakfast of cottage cheese and peaches. I can still taste it. Yum...just yum. And guaranteed to not explode! I still can't believe that it is one of my favourite breakfasts. Strange how things go like that... This morning I crawled out into the cold cold world and came in to workout. This time has become my zen, time for myself. I admit to breaking into a run for 2 minutes near the end during a favourite song and then reigning myself in again. I'm one of those nutters that LOVES to run...it just isn't good for my knee and I know it. And I must be good, because my knee, for the first time in a LONG LONG while, is utterly and completely normal. In fact, it's better than normal. I've been doing one legged lunges the last few weeks with no complaints and last night I bounded up the stairs to get something at home. In the past this would have elicited a twinge or pinch.

Now? Nothing. Because I'm achieving my goals. My legs are strong. The muscles supporting my knee are strong. I used to only be able to do one set of leg raises of 10 lbs before my knee would complain and ache. As of yesterday I can do 3 sets of 40. Yes...hard work and attention to form has given me back the active, strong legs I have been wanting and I couldn't be more happy about it. I can do everything I need to do.

Being the hermit I have been with school lately I've sort of not noticed the changes in my health and overall body shape over the past few months. Nose to the grindstone. Really it's only my annoying lack of fitting clothes that's given me any signals that I'm really changing my body. The last week or so, going to Christmas gatherings a few people have come up and asked me what I'm doing to make such a good change. It's a bit embarrassing for me as I still don't know how to take a compliment, but it really pleases me that it's noticeable. It's the same reason why if I think I should pay a stranger a compliment I do...I know how it feels :)

I'm really struggling with finishing up my last assignment (it's one of those make work sort of things) and studying for my exam. It's been over 10 years since I've written a final exam...and I don't quite "get" all the material I need to to completely understand it all (it *is* biostatistical analysis methods...not exactly a cake walk, but still...I've got a nerdy brain. This stuff usually comes easily to me). If I can finish up my final assignment tonight I'll have 5 days left to study. I'm hoping it will be enough to mush things around in my head and come up with a decent understanding of what i need to know. Maybe I'm being a bit hard on myself, but I really want to know that when I walk into that test, whatever mark I get is the best I could get. If I blow it, so be it. At least I will have tried my best. Then there is no regrets and I can go on with life. It's been one long frigging difficult semester and I'll be damned if I give up with 1 week left :).

Well, I must be off. Lots of lab stuff to do...later taters!

Workout tunes: Fatboy Slim - Greatest Hits: Why try harder

Kaboom

I'm not even quite sure how but this morning I managed to explode yogurt all over the lunchroom while preparing my breakfast. Sadly, none of it made it into my belly.

It was rather spectacular...and the lunchroom smells great now :)

I dunno...

I think I'm wierd (shhhh. let me finish) in that I like vegetables. A lot. And fruit.
Since discovering a zillion kinds of healthy foods I love I've been quite happy snarfing them all the time. I thought that was the whole point of eating - eat what you like. I could never be healthy if I had to eat bland crappy food that I dislike. I suppose I'm lucky that way that I've found healty food that I love.
I have variations on salads with grilled chicken or tuna and nuts for lunch almost every day and at least once a day someone asks me why I'm not bored of them by now.
I have no idea. But I'm not. I still actually salivate when I'm setting it all out on my plate for lunch. Since school has started I've had them most days as I can pack up a whole week of lunches on sunday for myself and I'm good to go.
That's why I think it is odd that I've been asked if it's difficult to chop the vegetables.
Um. No? To me salads are a lazy lunch. Hardly any work at all...I make a point of not talking about it because I don't want to one of the people I find annoying that like to talk about how good her healthy food is.... I just eat it with a big grin on my face. :)

Do you find that there are things you could eat all the time and not get tired of?

There. That's better

The wonders of sleep cannot be described in words.
Ahhhhhh!